Penitas, Texas.
Typical home $159,043 (-2.4% in a year). McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$489 (+142%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $3,947 -2%
- $162,989$159,043 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $36,280 +30%
- $122,763$159,043 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Penitas$835
- Texas$1,556
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Penitas, TX fell 2.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Penitas, Hidalgo County, Texas
Penitas is a city of 6,460 people in Hidalgo County. 86% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 14% are rented. Unemployment in Hidalgo County was 6.3% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Hidalgo County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Penitas is a small city in Hidalgo County, in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, a higher share than is usual across the country, and typical home values are modest. Incomes sit below the county's, and relatively few adults have a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, the building trades and professional and business services also employing many people. Across Hidalgo County, some of the largest workplaces are school districts such as Idea Public Schools and Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD, along with Doctors Hospital at Renaissance. Unemployment across the county has eased a little compared with a year earlier, and the county has added a few more jobs. The typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park and the National Butterfly Center are both protected areas a short drive away, good for time outdoors. The Border Theater is also a short drive away. A longer drive brings you to the Museum of South Texas History, and winters are mild enough that outdoor visits are comfortable, with summers that turn very hot and little or no snow.
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- 1,808households
- 12%of adults have a degree
- 22 mintypical commute
What people in Hidalgo County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Hidalgo County had 296,499 jobs in 2025, 1.6% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 69° and lows near 47°; warmest in August, with highs near 97° and lows near 75°. About 20 inches of rain a year, and little or no snow.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the La Joya weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Hidalgo County
- Idea Public SchoolsSchool district8,946FTE
- Edinburg CisdSchool district4,877FTE
- Pharr-san Juan-alamo ISDSchool district4,635FTE
- The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyUniversity or college4,454
- Doctors Hospital at RenaissanceGeneral hospital4,426FTE
- La Joya ISDSchool district3,870FTE
- Mcallen ISDSchool district3,426FTE
- South Texas Health SystemGeneral hospital2,703FTE
School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- Cold wavesVery high
- HurricanesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- Hailrelatively high in parts of PenitasRelatively moderate
- Heat wavesrelatively high in parts of PenitasRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Penitas’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Hidalgo County and the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX metro.
Penitas home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Penitas$159,043
- Texas$296,424
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 7 Penitas listings — the market is cooling.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Penitas15.00%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Penitas25
Zip codes with a Penitas address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Penitas — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.